CRISIS IN YEMEN: HUMANITARIAN AID IS A WEAPON TOO

03/03/2017

İlknurŞebnemÖztemel-TDO- An officer fromSave the Children organization argued that shipments of aid are being delayed for months, hindering hundreds of thousands of people to access urgently-needed medical aid and food.

In January and February, the Saudi-led coalition prevented three humanitarian aid ships from landing at the country's main group of Hodeida

Ships were carrying enough aid to help around 300,000 people, contains antibiotics, surgical equipment, medicine to treat diseases like malaria and cholera and supplies to support malnourished children.

The last example of it is: a two-tonne shipment of Save the Children's medical supplies and equipment for 40,000 people including 14,000 children, held off the coast of Hodeida then forced to reroute by the Saudi-led coalition. It could only reach the port of Aden after 83 days.

Grant Pritchard, interim country director for Save the Children in Yemen, said “These delays are killing children. Our teams are dealing with outbreaks of cholera, and children suffering from diarrhea, measles, malaria and malnutrition’’. He added "With the right medicines these are all completely treatable — but the Saudi-led coalition is stopping them getting in. They are turning aid and commercial supplies into weapons of war’’.

Earlier this month, an officer from the UN said Saudi-led coalition air strikes on the Yemeni port of Hodeida, hampered humanitarian operations to import vital food and fuel supplies.

It has been reported that about 3.3 million people in Yemen on condition that 2.1 million children, are acutely malnourished. They include 460,000 children under age of five, subjected to the worst form of malnutrition, whose lives are under fatal threat caused by pneumonia or diarrhea.

Yemeni people struggle with civil war between the Iran-allied Houthi groups against Western-backed coalition led by Saudi Arabia, for approximately two years. In each war, civilians especially children harmed most.